Tinker'n with file knife

[roosterscrow]

I ran across an old snapped file in a box of junk in the barn and thought I'd see if I could re-handle it and make a little utility knife out of it.

This was my first attempt at knife making since sharpening sticks on the concrete driveway as a kid.

It will be interesting to see how it holds an edge its some hard steel.

 

[HoosierQ]

What did you use to sharpen it? Did you hammer it? Grind it?

 

[ryxlyx]

Been told they're hardened to 66/67, should hold an edge! Looks great, something I always meant to do haha--

 

[roosterscrow]

What did you use to sharpen it? Did you hammer it? Grind it?

I started with what might be called a tread file? It was a narrow V to begin with. I just knocked off all the file edges with the side of the grinding wheel, and then put an edge on it with a course stone to start, which took a while. Once that edge got cut right, a secondary bevel was much quicker work. It looks like there is still a lot of texture to the file left, but you can run your fingers over it and it feels pretty smooth. I got the idea of just sharpening it the way it was from one of the custom knife guys that has a 3 part Youtube video online showing how he makes his custom knives out of files with no heating, no hammering, he just leaves the temper in them and grinds away. It would have been nice to had a belt sander as I had to do a good bit of had sanding after the grinding wheel, but I probably only have an hour into it and now the old junk file is put to work in kitchen duty.

Here's the first part of the mentioned video of the knife maker doing a file knife right.
[video=youtube;DupWsV-iiys]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DupWsV-iiys[/video]